Do you have a home emergency preparedness kit and if so what specific items would you recommend…

May 12, 2011 7:42 PM

I just found an emergency prepareness checklist on Dollartree as I was searching for good deals. It made me wonder how many people have home kits. In light of the many natural disasters and the terrorists threats at this time, it seems like a very good idea. What items besides the basic water, food, etc should be included? Specifically what tech items? If towers are destroyed and electricity is out, what would be the most helpful for communication and survival? I'm going to put a kit together this month and would be thankful for your thoughts and suggestions.

@cindihoward: Yes you can buy them. You can get a decent one for around 40-60 dollars. The shake flashlights are not bad either. I just will have my kids shake/crank whichever I need. I will hold a chocolate bar in front of them and have them pedal a bike attached to a pulley, attached to a small generator so I could still get my woot! on.

Sort By:

Growing up in multiple locations that had risks of natural disasters and pending attacks, I was used to these kinds of things. We had these air tight tubs. Giant things really. That held our items and could be used as a temporary flotation assistance devices. We had spam, potted meat, vienna sausages, purified water, iodine water purification tablets, mre's, ponchos, changes of clothes, flashlights, batteries, hand-cranked radio, and a deck of cards. (Skip-bo to be exact.)

@cindihoward: Yes you can buy them. You can get a decent one for around 40-60 dollars. The shake flashlights are not bad either. I just will have my kids shake/crank whichever I need. I will hold a chocolate bar in front of them and have them pedal a bike attached to a pulley, attached to a small generator so I could still get my woot! on.

In case of emergency you should have stored food and water (duh), cash money in small bills (in case they can't break a $20 and/or the atm's are out), toilet paper (first thing people do in a big emergency is head to the grocery store and the first thing sold out is usually toilet paper). Don't forget you can use the water in your hot water heater for drinking too.

I got a hand cranked flashlight/radio/charger from woot a while back. Sent two to family in hurricane prone areas and the third one is next to the bed. Don't forget an emergency stash for the car too.

@coolphilip04: The books are a great idea...finally a REAL use for the HOW TO collection my husband has been acquiring...lol! But seriously, ya! I may pass on the turtle...if I am lucky I'll have a kid or two keeping me company and I will be saying how blessed I am they are safe with me...at least for the first few days.

I think the shake lights are kind of a waste honestly...they produce pretty poor light and are usually not well made. Also they are so many good battery powered led flashlights its not really necessary. A good flashlight will have a low mode that can easily run for over 24 hours straight on one set of batteries, many lights can go well over 100 hours. With one set of extra batteries, 200 hours will last you a looooong time.

First you need some knowledge and friends. Knowing first aid, disaster preparedness and your neighbors might keep you alive. You need 2 gallons of water per person for at least 14 days. I used those 5 gallon jugs with a few drops of bleach and change them every 6 months. A CAN OPENER. Tins of tuna, fruit, and things you can eat cold. A first aid kit with a few weeks of everyone's medicine. Work gloves and tools including something to turn off the gas and water. All that camping gear finally comes in handy.

The best joke is that the list for what you need for Burningman will keep you alive for about two weeks.

Condoms -- for some reason surviving and boredom makes people horny.

FRS and CB radios almost work in disasters to keep up with each other.

those cheap $1.99 solar garden lights. Put them in your garden, and until you need them in an emergency, they will actually make your yard look nicer. Depending on the time of year, they'll give you light every night for 4=10 hours.

remember, your traditional tank-style water heater contains enough water to keep a family of 4 hydrated for a few weeks.

+1 on 5-gallon jug with a few drops of bleach. Personally, I prefer to keep about 8x 24-pack cases of .5 liter bottled water on hand. CVS's generic brand was $1.88 a case a few weeks ago, and they seem to be on sale at least once per month for under $2/case.

I got a cheapo hand-crank flashlight (about 6-7 inch size) that also has an am/fm radio and celphone charger with several tips to charge various celphones for $2.99 at a fleamarket a few years back, and have actually used it a few times.

Rope, batteries, zip-ties, a couple of large tarps, feminine hygiene products, diapers, duct tape, wd-40.
And I think probably the MOST important thing to have in an emergency, is a plan. What if you aren't home and the kids are? Where do they go? Do you have a meeting spot for friends/family that may not be together to gather? Who do you call in to to see if everyone is alright? Keep the kids involved if you have them.

Agree with most of the above. I also have $500, minimal change of clothes, and some key documents/data/etc stored on a USB flash drive (birth certificates, passports, marriage certificate, SSN cards etc) that is encrypted. Good multi-tool also.

There are pros and cons to adding some sort of firearm to your kit, but it is worth at least considering.

I didn't see ammunition mentioned. I saw guns mentioned, but given a prolonged holdout, you might want to have a stockpile of ammo. So you can go hunting... not so you can steal other people's supplies... ;)

@madross: Good suggestions! I think a first aid book is a must and maybe even a day class. I will make a point to renew friendships with my neighbors...has been a while. Thanks for the water to person ratio: is that 2 gallons a day or 2 gallons for 14 days per person? Got the can openers and first aid kit. Will gather that extra (old) set of tools my husband has and some camping gear not yet donated to Goodwill. Had not thought about the medicine but I can see that would be helpful...not sure how to get a two week supply since they are scripts but I will ask the doc. No need for the condoms but thanks. I had to goggle Burningman. Great pics on the website..not my kind of gathering at this point in my life but what a remarkable concept. Finally, I have considered a CB radio in the past but didn't know if it was really worth it. I may need to look into it a bit more. Great ideas. BTW I could not find a supply list on the burningman website. Can you send me a link?

@flyinggirl: Very good suggestions, especially the plan! What do I use the zip-ties for? I have seen them advertized on daily deal websites but did not know what to use them for except electronic cords and I'm good with that.

@75grandville: Documents on a flashdrive is something I would never have thought of...these suggestions are wonderful, I will put them together and post them sometime soon (Maybe as a question...lol). PS Got the Gun and the Bible covered!

Those of us in and above the Frost Belt need to know how to drain a hot water heating system if you lose power and the temps drop to freezing in house... Repair and replacement costs for a heating system are insane...

@cindihoward For long-term medications (blood pressure etc), in the past, I've refilled as soon as allowed by insurance. Depending on the plan, that may give you a couple of days to a couple of weeks medication "extra". Repeat until you have the supply you want.

I've actually gotten to the point where I have a 90 day supply of just about everything (took 2+ years to accumulate). I just make sure that I rotate everything at least once per year. I take my latest mail-order delivery, stick it in the cellar, and bring the old up and use it.

p.s. Zip-ties are like duct tape - there are tons of uses for them. My latest use is to attach conduit to my chain-link fence to run wire for an invisible fence.

@hobbitss: If they close enough for you to use a machete they are to close for comfort... Best to put up Barbed wire at your optimum rifle range, not to close and not to far away... Rattle cans tied to the wire will let you know when and where you have a new target...

Another commonly overlooked area for clean drinking water is in the holding tanks of toilets (only if you are sure that there have NOT been any chemical tabs or cleaning treatments in the tank though).

Additional items one might need:
A topographical map of your town or county
A compass to navigate to springs, creeks, etc nearby
Waterproof matches or lighters or magnesium fire starter
Small gas stove or plenty or wood/charcoal for cooking

I just buy extra stuff on sale. Did you see the extreme couponers? Kinda like that, on a small scale. It's easy (and cheap) to keep a month to six months supply of everything, especially canned food and toilet paper, on hand at all times. I still have a dozen cans of cranberries from Xmas!
Don't forget cookery stuff. Cast iron and stainless steel pots and pans last forever. You can get aluminum coffee pots, cups and plates, and a lot of other camping items real cheap right after Xmas. Pick up a couple boxes of matches, and hit the discount stores for cheap butane lighters and candles. We used to make camping stoves out of tin cans, wax and cardboard- one big one lasts a weekend.

Look if you need a good disaster survival kit go here http://www.rockymountainsurvival.com/Disaster_bag.html these are designed by a survival expert who has lived through 3 major disasters including Mt. Saint Helens and has studied disasters for years you won't find a better kit anywhere.

Woot.com is operated by Woot Services LLC.
Products on Woot.com are sold by Woot, Inc., other than items on Wine.Woot which are sold by the seller specified on the product detail page.
Product narratives are for entertainment purposes and frequently employ
literary point of view;
the narratives do not express Woot's editorial opinion.
Aside from literary abuse, your use of this site also subjects you to Woot's
terms of use
and
privacy policy.
Woot may designate a user comment as a Quality Post, but that doesn't mean we agree with or guarantee anything said or linked to in that post.

Not a farewell, just a forced redirect.

It's true, Local.Woot is no longer, but please don't despair.

Never-ending savings are still to be found on Deals.Woot each and every day, so come on in. Don't think of it as a time for tears. Think of it as a way to bring us all closer together under one roof.

Sorry

This is only for people who have bought woots

We restrict voting to users who have purchased something from one of the other Woot stores. It's not just because we want your money (which we do) - it's the best way to be sure all the votes are coming from real people and not spam-bots or phony accounts. The best way we can think of, anyway. For now.

You can always get voting rights by buying something from one of Woot's other sites:

Purchases through Deals.Woot don't count, because in that case you're not buying anything from us. And we don't have your account information for those purchases.

If you think you've bought something from Woot before and still can't vote, make sure you're logged in with the same account you used to buy from us.

Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

But when your votes lean so heavily toward the dark side, we have to wonder. Go vote up a few things. Accentuate the positive for a little while. It'll do you some good, and it'll do the site some good, too. Then you can get back to dealing out the smackdowns, OK?

Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

Anyway, taking votes back messes all that up, so we give you five minutes, in case you just mis-clicked. After that we've got to say no take-backs. Luckily, votes are free, so feel free to throw them around left and right wherever you see fit.